Artistic Earth Pottery

Just opened a new class today for beginning wheel throwing starting Tuesday, January 17th.

Check the website, www.artisticearthpottery.com, the required dates and pricing are listed on the schedule page. Want to join? Just reply through the contact page. Just a few spots left!!

Spent this morning unloading a bunch of holiday product from the kiln. Had a few failures and a couple of eh's...but was extremely happy with this collection of mugs and small platters. These will be on display at Winterfair in Columbus this coming weekend, Dec 2nd-4th. Hope to see you there...any leftovers will be listed in our Etsy shop after the show or available at our studio in the Sunshade building, Troy.

Final batch is in the kiln of this awesome collaboration with . Mark is tired but breathing again. I'm sure some bourbon fans will have a unique gift under the tree this year.

The fall season is almost here!! And pumpkins are starting to pop up everywhere...here is one of Marks that can be found in our studio and at DAI Oktoberfest next weekend. Can't wait to see you there..

Very few spots available for summer. We are cutting back a bit to focus on "making" for our late summer/early fall show schedule.

Come out this Sunday and you will not be disappointed!!!! Revival house is having a Rummage sale and we are doing our now Annual Garage Sale of one offs and seconds!!!! We will also have a handful of Etsy stock available too!!! Only 4 hours on Sunday. Come early and get a good look at all the Stuff!!

Mark hard at the wheel. Now that we are starting in person art shows, we continue to observe the need for a good mug collection. A large percentage of visitors to our tent can't help themselves but pick up and hold at least one mug. This usually starts a nice conversation about each person's morning ritual. It's always nice to learn about others in this way. We are all different, but really very similar in ways. What morning mug ritual do you have?
Happy Hump Day everyone.

So currently finishing up a class before spending the afternoon packing for a show...rest will come later today. These are a few new items Mark created for the large corner shelving. Always a trick to get everything visible without totally crowding the shelves. Spending our Sunday at the Wyoming Art show near Cincy...come see us!

We are heading to our first art show of the season this weekend. Come check it out if in the Cincinnati area. I've also added any confirmed shows to our website so you can schedule your summer and fall events to come see us😊. Looking forward to chatting up in person.

Just delivered these mugs to their forever home! Really enjoyed dusting off this design sheet from several years back and making them again. Never exactly the same since the skill set has improved over the years...or at least I think so🤔

Recently received this picture from an appreciative customer. Started with the purchase of one on the right at a show last fall...ended with an entire display. Looks beautiful together. Mark truly enjoyed the challenge.

Timeline photos

So classes are in full swing right now, but Mark found a small window of time to finish glazing and firing these beauties. If they don't sell too soon, they can be found at one of our shows this summer...or adorning our fireplace😉

Happy New Year! I know, a bit late, but just wanted to remind ongoing students that classes will not be resuming until the week starting January 10th. We are taking a well deserved break or at least trying to...

Several nights of discussion were had about this piece. Mark loves making large pots but never completely thinks them through prior to starting....luckily the pot did shrink enough to JUST fit in our largest kiln.... It's been drying for weeks, but something this large is always hard to tell if it's dry enough so...preheating for many hours, then a slow bisque. Will keep you posted on the progress...also how much it shrinks...currently 27 ish inches tall!!

Wishing everyone we have met on this journey online or IRL a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!!!
Mark & Amy

Slowly drying these cute soap dishes. These are all headed to Wisconsin to a lovely lady that makes goatmilk soap. If you want to be entertained by some crazy goats and donkeys, not to mention a donkey riding cat, check out her feed!!!!

So...sixteen years with this guy today... married at least....25 years of knowing him....so getting to spend the day pup sitting for our favorite and only grand pup! Started with a walk, some dog play in the yard and now creating at the studio....not a bad day so far...never would have been able to say this if it wasn't for him....we make a pretty good team and pottery is a much better grind than office work😊

So Marks a satisfied potter. This large planter was just acquired by Richmond Art Museum for their permanent display. It's now gone, but we can visit it whenever we want to...well as long as they are open!

The studio is closed this weekend! But Mark and I will be showing are wares at a few local art fests. Check out our previous post for times and locations! Happy Labor Day!

Happy Sunday🌼. A little story behind this "bud vase". It works perfectly as one, but was originally created as an oil cruet. Needless to say, the neck just didn't work with our current spout. Lesson learned and it now has a new life storing blooms from our backyard🙂 Happy ending after all.

I think this pic is soooo cute. I make and sell the larger on ETSY all day long. But had a special request from a couple in California that live in an RV and needed something a bit smaller....it is so cute, can I say it twice? So now the big question, do I offer the smaller size? Will really have to think on that! Have you ever gotten a custom request that makes you want to do more?

It's all the little details that have to happen to finish a piece! Throwing is fairly basic, adding the corkscrew...another step, then cleaning up and stamping the bottom! Can all be done in a day on those days that we spend lots of hours at the studio, but most times we do all these process steps between our teaching classes...so usually a couple of days from beginning to end.
We try to keep the studio student ready for most classes, but on occasion there will be a large section filled with this kind of stuff...no room to hide it all!!

Happy 4th everyone! Enjoy this great holiday.

I know this is kinda late, but want to make sure our Facebook friends have heard about this great event... tomorrow...we will have some great sales..lots of product that was made for shows that didn't happen as well as 2nds. Come see us!!!

Classes have been crazy busy!!! A year of quarantine has everyone wanting to try something new....we will be starting a fresh batch of classes mid July with a wait list in hand!

Just finished listing all these awesome oil cruets in our ETSY shop. All Mark Made and All Mark Glazed! Did a different technique to each bottle and sprayed on each one just a bit differently with a few different glazes! Nothing says OOAK or one of a kind for those of us not up to speed on texting language. LOL!

What makes them really special is that we had a slight power glitch during the firing that then needed to be restarted....caused a few changes to the sheen of the glazes that isn't the norm. No repeating these...ever!

So here is a little trick I learned from 2 great potters...both Blair Clemo and Julia Galloway shared this process when I saw them years ago during a workshop . Want a plate, but don't feel like throwing big?? Use a hump mold for the plate and then throw the foot ring! Great way to start the foot ring is by making a clay donut....that way your ring is always centered! PS...this is one of a custom dinnerware set I just completed last week. This trick was key to a great foot ring.

See what just a little texture and the perfect glaze can do??? Texture doesn't have to be complicated to create a beautiful scene.🙂

This doesn't look like much in the raw form....but just wait for the glazed look....coming soon!!!

So yep! This one has 199 holes as do several others. Depending on my spacing and the exact diameter and height of the bowl, it may vary! That is one thing that keeps me sane, the ability to make similar items, just not exact, allows me to breathe a bit easier. Spent too much time in Quality Assurance in a past life that exacting specifications now make my skin crawl. There is something enjoyable about making and making things a bit imperfect and still be loved! And each one will have the # of holes stamped on it....if I remember🤷🏻‍♀️⁠

So even when I know there is a demand for oil cruets, Mark would rather spend time with these types! These are normally made in several sections, then put together. That is always the easy part. Trying to get the piece in the kiln for bisque firing and then trying to figure out how to glaze always create some inventive methods for each!

So it's kinda hard to tell, but that is Mark in the background trimming something big! It always amazes me on how far wheel trimmings can fly....even with a cardboard barrier. Anytime he is trimming large pieces on the wheel, I think we sweep up enough trimmings to make another large piece😅....(not really)...can you tell I get bored putting holes in bowls???

🍓Happy May 1st! I know I'm a bit early, but "it's almost berry season" . Currently, making, glazing and listing all kinds of berry bowls. Though these are pretty similar, I sometimes get a little crazy with the hole pattern making them all just a bit unique! A bit sad that we won't have a Strawberry Festival this year in Troy, but the berries will still be here, festival or not. Wash and enjoy!🍓

Just took these pretties out of the kiln. They are sanded, cleaned and packed up to head over to this afternoon. Niki is so easy to work with, she is always happy to accept any of my planters, different clays, different glazes, different sizes. I get bored if I have to do too many of the same things!

So today has been a busy one. Just finishing up Step 1 if our Signature glaze load. Step 2 tomorrow, then Step 3 on Monday. Hopeful to have an awesome kiln opening Wednesday morning.....now of course each step doesn't take an entire day, more like half a day, but the process seems to work best with drying a full 12 hours before touching them again and again and again. Everytime we do this special load we are always brainstorming new ideas on how to quicken the process, and are always testing a few pieces the "new" way, but none have proven out to drastically improve anything....but we will keep trying 😊

Every piece we make in the studio had to start somewhere....with us that is a bag of clay that we purchase from . There are some real die hards that harvest their clay from riverbanks and backyards, but I don't think we'd be in this business if we had to do that. Reclaim takes enough time and energy, so starting with good clay from a supplier is the best we can do. We still do a ton of processing to get to the finished sellable/usable piece including wedging, throwing or slabwork, finishing, bisque firing, glazing, glaze firing and final sanding. And this is the short list!

Do you have a hobby? At which part of the process do you start???

Yesterdays tools created todays butter dish! I love the different textures I can add to the butter dish top without affecting the actual functionality of the dish below. I created my dish for the standard East Coast butter size, but after learning that West Coast butter (yes, there are different butters!) is shorter but fatter, I enlarged the typical butter dish to hold either one. Unfortunately, however, it doesn't meet all butter requirements...recently found out that Trader Joe's sells a bigger and fatter butter that doesn't fit. Can't please them all!!!!

What type of butter do you use?? And the ultimate question.....do you keep your butter on the counter or cold in the fridge???? This is always a conversation at shows :o)